Advanced WFM Software Simplifies Forecasting, Scheduling

Contact center forecasting is like ogres and onions. All three have many layers.

You can forecast future demand based on past volume. But to get an accurate forecast you’ll want to look at other factors as well.

For example, you’ll want to consider whether the time for which you’re forecasting demand includes a holiday. Also, an accurate forecasting tool will also look at what day of the week does that holiday falls on this year. If it’s a weekday this year and was a weekend last year, that could drive more or less traffic.

Factors such a weather, local or national events, or promotions can also significantly impact contact center traffic. So can advanced forecasting tools can factor those things in as well.

“Website crashes, phone service interruptions and power outages are not events you can plan for in advance,” adds Monet Software (News - Alert), which sells workforce management software. “But if they occurred last year, the odds are extremely remote of them occurring again on that same day this year. So if incoming calls dropped 20 percent as a result, that’s one variable that can be tossed out when forecasting.”

Meanwhile, advanced scheduling features can look at what agents are available for various shifts, what skillsets they bring to the table, and how their availability and skills best map to expected demands for any particular channel or shift.

Using sophisticated but simple-to-use software that can aggregate and analyze various demand and employee factors, and create forecasts and schedules, is a much better way to run a contact center than using Excel to get the job done. The process of populating spreadsheets with scheduling data is error prone. And it’s a whole lot more difficult to forecast demand manually.

At least that’s the experience of Mark Hernandez of Compassion International, a

14-year Monet Software customer. Monet’s software has been helping the organization build optimal schedules since the 2004 tsunami. The software also allows Compassion International, which supports 10 queues, to better leverage staff, justify headcount, and support an array of channels.

Edited by Maurice Nagle